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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Anton's Suntour Cyclocross

If you remember our previuos post (easy, it's the last one before this) you'll see my old Suntour cyclocross rig in singlespeed mode. A lot of things happened ever since, including how the Suntour found a new home at Anton Santoso's in Bogor.

The Suntour (not related with the component maker of the same name) was a misterious frame. No further information on where does it was made, or what tubing was used. The only hint was "Made In Japan" stamp written on the toptube. It was originally a road frame with caliper brakes, and enough clearance for fenders although there were no eyelets on the dropouts to be found. 38mm tires fit easily, so I decided to convert it into a cyclocross bike back then.

I have had brake pivots and cable stops brazed on the seatstays. The fork was replaced with the one that already fitted with brake pivots, to make the job easier. This bike served me well for a couple years until the nice lads at Cicli Boom gave me this frame. The Suntour was stripped off the parts, repainted and rebuilt as a singlespeed.

After taking this bike from our shop and using it for a couple while Anton decided that singlespeeding is not his cup of tea, so he brought back the Suntour for a new setup. He wanted to keep it simple so we went with 2 x 9 drivetrain. Some alterations were made on the frame such as the downtube cable clamp and front derailer clamp adaptor.

The most welcomed addition to this bike is the new Shimano Sora 3500 brifters. Still using 9-speed design, this year Shimano decided to put the release lever behind the brake lever, resembling Shimano's more expensive brifters. This way the release levers can be easily reached from the drops, unlike the previous model where you should move your grip to the hoods so you can operate the release lever with your thumb.